Monday, March 9, 2009

Literacy Practice

     Literacy practice is the skill of reading and writing that takes into account social contexts.  What is considered skillful varies across historical, political, and socioeconomic contexts.  
      An example of varying literacy practice was that the pre-Gutenburg era focused on the memorization of manuscripts in order and then interpreted those manuscripts to analyze its meaning.  Compared to that of the 12 century, original authorship of new material and using a variety of different sources became the literacy practice.  Castell and Luke broke up more recent literacy changes into three distinct paradigms within U.S. history.  First, the 19th century classical period where copying, oral recitation, and imitation was important.  There was an emphasis on aristocratic social structure and obedience to tradition.  The second, was the post-industrialization period of the 20th century.  Skills and literacy evolved to include the commercial and urban society and interaction between teachers and students was encouraged.  Tradition still remained but using the imagination and self expression became important.  Lastly, the technocratic paradigm focused on functioning in society , clear common objectives, and feedback from students about how the message is of importance.  
       The point of this section of the article was to portray how literacy practices are different politically, economically, culturally, and socially and the unequal distribution can restrict access to literacy in general.  There are have and have-nots still within literacy practices and literary practices continue to evolve.

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